At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

We prefer the hard ductwork over the flexible. Air flows through the hard ductwork with less resistance than through the flexible stuff. In addition, we have observed several new construction homes that had some really cheap looking flexible ductwork for the bath, dryer, and kitchen hood vents. Another consideration is condensation. Warm humid air from shower vents and dryer vents that flow through cooler ductwork will condensate and form water. Since the flexible ducts dip down between the hangers, water tends to collect in the low spots and form pools of water inside the flexible ductwork. Hard ducts sloped downward will let the condensated water flow down the duct and drain outside of the house.

My father-n-law either cleaned out or replaced a flexible dryer duct for someone he knew. The dryer duct had clogged up with lint and failed. When he inspected the duct, he found large amounts of water pooled in the low spots along the entire run of the ductwork. He believes that the water standing in the ductwork caused the lint to collect and clog the ductwork.

Thus, we specified the hard ductwork for all our bathroom, laundry, and kitchen vents. We also specified the hard ductwork for the main H&A trunk and return lines.

Obed

 

[IH3444]

I like flex duct also where ever I can use it. Another trick on long runs, is to step up a duct size, 4" to 5", etc. This reduces the resistance to flow. Simple gas/fluid dynamics. Looks like you have a good amount of room for size increasement. There are also well balanced exit doors that open on the slightest increase of pressure from the ducted air. They seem to have aluminum flaps, verse plastic injected molded flaps. Plastic can also change shape geometrically as it ages, and if placed in sun. Deterioration by UV sun light can also degrade plastics. Aluminum flaps are mostly unaffected. Looking forward to seeing the brickwork. Love the property you are selling. The waterfalls are sweet. I have a small waterfall also, which can be viewed out the large picture side window. In the spring it sounds like an engine running when outside. Great job, and that John Deere certainly has earned it's keep.

 

[eepete]

For baths, we used the aluminized mylar flexible in areas where we had attic access. The house was designed such that none of these runs were more than 5'.

1st floor half bath (where the duct was between floor so we had no access) we did a hybrid- flex out of the fan for about 2', then into a smooth duct, then flex to get to the outside. The thinking was we have access to the flex from both sides. Never had a problem with bathroom flex clogging, but also always took it up in size to a 4" flex to insure no problems.

Your end result if great :thumbsup:. Smooth and direct.

Dryer ducts around here are only allowed to be hard, flex is not allowed. Old house had flex, only 6' of it, and after 5 years it was clogged and I replaced it with hard/smooth duct. The inspectors here looked at how the duct was installed. Much like electrical conduit, there was a direction they wanted to see so that lint would not catch on the edges of the hard duct. If you think about the two ways a junction can face, it will be clear which is optimum. All seals were wrapped in the somewhat expensive ($15 per roll) aluminum tape. When everything is done, make sure nothing else is resting on it (wires or duct work).

I've seen homes from starter to high end with the plastic flex duct for a dryer, running a contorted path that was easy for the installer. And then it will clog. Is it any wonder that the construction trades are often viewed with scorn... A good contractor is like gold, a bad one gets cursed daily.

Pete

 

[Obed]

Freezer Died

We keep a chest freezer in our storage trailer. After working a long day on Saturday, at 7:30 PM my wife stops to cook a homemade pizza for supper. When she opens the freezer, she discovers it isn't working and the contents were thawed or thawing depending on where they were located in the freezer. I spend some time seeing if I can find another worn wire to fix like I did a few months ago. No luck. The freezer could not be revived. So at 8:15 PM we begin calling the 3 nearest Sears stores to see if we can find a freezer that will fit in our storage trailer. If we can't find a freezer, we'll lose all our frozen food. We find a freezer in stock, beg the salesman to keep the doors open until we get there 10 minutes after closing time, buy another freezer, and bring it home in my pickup truck. We place the new freezer in the trailer and level it. After cleaning the melted ice cream, meat juice, etc. off our food, we load it into the new freezer. We end up finishing the freezer job at about 1 AM.

 

[Obed]

Filling in the Electrical Trench (continued)

On Saturday, after putting gravel under the conduit that did not sit flat on the bottom of the trench, we hand filled up to a foot above the conduit using soft dirt without rocks in it. After covering the electrical conduit with a foot of dirt, we laid the 1" conduit for the phone line. Once again, we had to cover the phone conduit by hand also to prevent large rocks from sitting against the conduit.

Near the end of the day Sunday, I was filling in the section where the conduit enters the house when it started raining. It seems like every time I work on this section, it starts raining. So I had to abort and once again cover the area to prevent silt from ruining the drain tile. The rain continued so we had to stop. At least we got the section of the trench that crosses the driveway covered and drivable. Monday was Memorial Day. It rained all day so we took the day off. We badly needed a day off anyway so I welcomed the rest.

 

[Obed]

We got a soaking rain Memorial Day and Tuesday. The section of trench that crossed the driveway settled some and got real muddy causing a mess as red clay got tracked onto our parking area. I don't really want to put gravel over the trench until it finishes settling but I also don't want more red clay deposited on our parking area. Just one little clump of wet red clay sticking to your shoe soles is not much fun. Unless you've experienced what I'm describing, you can't really appreciate the situation.

 

[Obed]

Wednesday evening I covered more of the trench. Like before, a lot of it had to be done by hand to prevent rocks from damaging the conduit.

 

[Obed]

Thursday evening I filled with dirt the area where the conduit enters the house.

 

[Obed]

The wife is trying to figure out how to make a built-in desk in the great room that will look good.

She set up boxes to simulate the kitchen counter and bar at the end (left side of half height wall) and the desk on the right side.

The pvc 90 degree joints hanging up are supposed to be pendant lights.

 

[eepete]

I'm with you on the red clay blues .

I covered all the conduit in my trenches by hand, takes time but I had no problems.

I'd put a thin layer of gravel on the clay in the driveway. Otherwise, traffic will pump it up and you'll have a hard time getting it packed down again. Also keeps from muddying up the rest of the driveway.

When you get the conduit area covered, you could put some plastic down until gutters are up and final grade from the house is correct.

Good deal on trying the desk. We did that on our 1st house, and bumped out an eat in area after seeing it was too small. If you haven't already done so, it's a good time to make sure that beds and end tables will fit where you think they will. I also went around the house and with a line of spray paint on the floor marked where the door will swing. This helped me visualize the layout of the room and possible furniture placement. It also helps when it's time to place the door order by cutting down on communications problems.
Some of the furniture placement will affect where you put outlets, phone and ethernet.

Looking good :thumbsup:

Pete